The rain fell like shattered glass against the marble steps of the Malhotra Empire Tower, each drop slicing through the silence of the night. The city had stopped breathing hours ago, but on the forty-seventh floor, behind a glass wall tinted black, Raj Malhotra stood wide awake.
A storm lived inside him—one that never slept.
The CEO of TitanCorp, the man who ruled the corporate underworld with a single command, watched the empty city as though it belonged to him. As though everything he saw was merely waiting to kneel.
His jaw tightened.
It wasn't the company keeping him awake.
Not the billion-dollar merger.
Not the sharks circling his empire.
Not even the brother who wanted him dead.
It was her.
Aisha Khanna.
A name soft enough to whisper yet sharp enough to cut him open.
He didn't know why she haunted him. She shouldn't. She was insignificant—just another ordinary woman trying to survive the weight of a world that didn't care.
But Raj noticed her.
The first time he saw her, she wasn't wearing anything remarkable—simple clothes, rain in her hair, eyes too bright for someone drowning in debt. She had walked into the building by accident, looking for a job posting. One look was all it took.
Her presence carved its way under Raj's skin like a slow-burning poison.
And Raj Malhotra never forgot a poison.
Tonight, the memory of her eyes—wide, defiant, refusing to cower—pulled him apart piece by piece.
A knock shattered the silence.
"Sir?" his assistant whispered from outside. "Your car is ready."
Raj didn't move.
"Cancel it," he said, voice low, dangerous.
"But sir—"
"Cancel. It."
The building seemed to flinch.
Raj Malhotra didn't explain himself. People obeyed, or they disappeared.
He closed his eyes for a moment, forcing the world to still. It didn't. Aisha's face flashed behind his eyelids, haunting him again.
He had only seen her twice.
And yet she lived in his thoughts like a shadow stitched to his soul.
He didn't believe in obsession.
He didn't believe in weakness.
But he believed in her—whatever this hunger was.
A hunger he didn't want.
A hunger he couldn't stop.
---
Across the city…
Aisha Khanna pulled her flimsy dupatta tighter around her shoulders as the bus screeched to a stop near her rented room. The night wind was cruel, but not as cruel as life lately.
She checked her phone.
Rent overdue.
Loan overdue.
Mother's medical bills skyrocketing.
Her chest tightened.
"Not today," she whispered to herself. "Please… not today."
She had gone to TitanCorp again, hoping the HR might actually consider her resume this time. She had degrees. She had skills. She had desperation.
But desperation wasn't enough.
TitanCorp only hired the elite. People with money. Recommendations. Prestige.
Not her.
As she walked through the narrow lane leading to her small room, she didn't notice the sleek black car parked at the end of the street, windows tinted, engine silent.
Inside it, Raj Malhotra watched her.
The shadows embraced his car like they belonged to him, concealing the sharp lines of his face. His eyes tracked her every step—slow, calculating, hungry. The rain didn't touch him, but he felt the cold she was wrapped in.
He exhaled.
His breath fogged the glass.
She looked exhausted. Frail. Yet she held herself like she refused to break.
Raj's fingers tightened around the steering wheel.
He wasn't supposed to be here.
He wasn't supposed to follow her.
He wasn't supposed to need to see the rise and fall of her breath to sleep at night.
But here he was.
When she stumbled on a loose stone, he almost stepped out. The urge hit him like a violent wave—a primal need to protect what wasn't his.
She disappeared inside her room.
The light in the single window flickered on.
Raj leaned back, a dark smirk curling at his lips.
"Still alive," he murmured to himself. "Good."
The storm outside deepened, thunder roaring like the world was warning him.
Raj didn't care.
Warnings were for men with something to lose.
He had lost everything long ago.
Except the dangerous pull toward her.
---
The Next Morning…
Aisha yanked her thin shawl around her and ran down the stairs of her building. She was late for her part-time café job. Again.
As she turned onto the main street, a matte-black luxury car came to a slow stop in front of her, blocking her path.
She froze.
The tinted window slid down soundlessly.
Her heart stopped.
Raj Malhotra's eyes met hers—dark, unreadable, simmering with something she couldn't name.
The man looked like he had been carved out of the night itself. His expensive suit fit him like power stitched into fabric. His presence alone made the air colder.
Aisha's grip on her bag tightened.
She had seen him once inside TitanCorp. She had heard rumors.
He was dangerous.
Unpredictable.
Untouchably rich.
And utterly merciless.
Why was he here?
Why was he blocking her way?
"Get in," he said softly.
The softness made it worse.
"S–sir?" she stammered.
"Get in," he repeated, voice low enough to raise goosebumps. "Now."
"I… I have work—"
"I'm aware."
He wasn't asking.
He wasn't suggesting.
He was commanding.
Aisha swallowed hard. Something in his gaze held her rooted. He didn't blink. Didn't breathe. As if waiting for her refusal would ignite something terrible.
"Why me?" she whispered.
Raj leaned forward slightly, eyes narrowing.
"Because," he said quietly, "you walked into my building and stayed in my mind when you had no right to."
Her stomach dropped.
"Sir…"
"Get in," he whispered again, voice darker. "I don't like repeating myself."
Aisha hesitated.
For one sharp second.
Then she opened the door.
And the trap closed.
---
Inside the car…
The silence between them was tight, electric, suffocating.
Aisha tried not to tremble.
Raj didn't look at her.
He didn't speak.
But his presence devoured the space.
Finally, he said, "You're coming to TitanCorp."
Her head snapped up. "What? Why?"
His eyes flicked to her for a heartbeat.
"I require you."
Her pulse stopped.
"Require… me?"
Raj leaned closer, voice like velvet wrapped around steel.
"You will understand soon enough."
Aisha's breath caught.
He wasn't smiling.
He wasn't flirting.
He wasn't teasing.
He was stating a fact.
A dangerous one.
And as the car sped toward TitanCorp, Aisha realized one terrifying truth—
Raj Malhotra wasn't a man she had met by chance.
He was a storm she had walked straight into.
And he had no intention of letting her walk out.